With the internet being such a significant part of our daily lives and the cost of hiring increasing, employers are increasingly using social media screening for employment to assess candidates. In some roles, social media screening can be important for verifying a candidate’s suitability for the job. However, it can sometimes be controversial and surrounded by privacy regulations that employers need to be very careful about.
In this article, we’ll examine the basics of social media screening, discover why some employers check candidates’ social media accounts, and explore the regulations that employers must follow during pre-employment social media screening.
what is social media screening?
During a social media screening (sometimes called a social media background check), an employer researches a candidate’s presence online and on social media platforms before making a job offer. Social media screenings involve examining the candidate’s profiles and the content they have published on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Instagram or other platforms.
when do employers conduct social media screenings?
Employers may conduct screenings at different points in the recruitment process. Some will start before an interview is booked to uncover any issues that may make the candidate unsuitable for the job. Others conduct them later, potentially simultaneously as the reference check or pre-employment background check.
how common is social media screening among employers?
Figures on the number of employers that conduct social media screenings vary significantly, mainly depending on the employer’s country or industry. Numbers published in Harvard Business Review show that as many as 70% of employers in the USA check some candidates’ social media profiles at some point during the recruitment process, and 54% have rejected a candidate based on what they have uncovered.
However, social media background screening seems to be less common in the EU, mostly due to the effects of privacy regulations that we’ll examine in more detail later in this article.
Evidence also shows that screening is more common in specific industries where personal integrity is essential, such as financial services or specialized roles that require security clearance.
what are the benefits of social media screening for employers?
- It can uncover potential hiring risks and prevent negligent hiring — Everyone has the right to a personal life outside of work, and the majority of employers respect the boundaries between work life and private life, as long as employees are performing well.
However, many employers also expect their staff to meet a certain standard of behavior, even outside of the office. This can be particularly important in roles that require working with vulnerable people, accessing sensitive information or maintaining a high level of trust with customers and colleagues.
Employers that conduct social media screenings argue they help verify the candidate meets the basic levels of ethical, lawful and respectful behavior that they expect. - It can verify the claims the candidate made in their application — Unfortunately, it’s a fact that some candidates lie in job applications. The exact proportion is unclear, but research from ResumeLab puts it as high as 70%. Social media screening can’t reveal everything, but some employers say it helps verify the basics.
For example, if a candidate’s resume says they worked in a foreign country but you can’t find any evidence of travel on their Facebook profile, it could suggest they’re not telling the truth. - It can help assess the candidate’s potential cultural and values fit — Qualifications and experience are important, but for long-term success and high retention, a candidate needs to fit into the company’s culture and share its fundamental values. Organizations that use screening would say a candidate’s social media presence can show whether they’re a good match on a personal level.
For example, if the company culture emphasizes extroversion and social interaction, a very introverted and shy candidate might make them a poor cultural fit. Discovering something like this in a social media screening probably isn’t a reason to reject a candidate immediately, but it could be something to investigate further in the interview stage.
how does social media screening work for employers?
The most basic social media screenings involve the employer finding the candidate’s profiles on a range of platforms (or using links the candidate has provided) and checking what they’ve shared, liked, posted or commented on. However, some employers go into more detail, taking help from specialized social media screening companies that offer AI-powered screening technology that delves deep into a candidate’s entire online presence and social network. These companies typically also provide additional services, such as advanced compliance measures that ensure screening follows privacy regulations or continuous monitoring services that keep an eye on candidates even after joining the company.
However, all social media screening is limited by what the candidate shares online. If their private life is filled with unethical, illegal behavior but they don’t post about it on social media, no amount of screening will be able to detect it. This is why social media screening can create a false sense of security. For that reason, social media screening should always be just one part of a more extensive pre-employment check process and not the only part.
is social media screening legal?
As social media screening has become more common, privacy regulations have adapted to limit what employers can do. These regulations vary worldwide, but many countries have laws that impact the permitted scope of social media screening.
what US law says about social media screening?
For US employers, the challenge isn't navigating a single, overarching data regulation like the EU's GDPR, but rather complying with a patchwork of anti-discrimination laws enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), as well as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Social media screening is generally legal in the United States, but the process must be engineered to shield the employer from seeing or using information related to a candidate’s legally protected characteristics.
Here are the critical guidelines employers in the US need to follow:
- Focus on job relevance: Employers must only collect information that is demonstrably relevant to the job being filled, such as evidence of illegal activity, harassment, or threats of violence.
- Do not compel access: An employer cannot force a candidate to disclose their social media passwords or login credentials, or coerce them to "friend" the employer to gain access to a private profile. State laws often explicitly prohibit this practice.
- Apply consistency: The employer must apply the same screening standards to all candidates for the same role to avoid claims of disparate treatment or bias.
- Filter out protected class data: If a hiring manager or recruiter is performing the screen, they are exposed to legally protected characteristics—such as race, religion, sexual orientation, or disability—which they cannot use in a hiring decision. This is why many US companies outsource the process.
- Comply with FCRA: If a third-party service (a Consumer Reporting Agency or CRA) is used to conduct the social media screen, the employer must comply with the FCRA, which requires:
- written disclosure: Providing the candidate with a clear, standalone notice that a background check, which may include a social media review, will be conducted.
- authorization: Obtaining the candidate’s written permission for the check.
- adverse action procedure: Following a strict two-step process if the check results in a decision not to hire, giving the candidate a chance to review and dispute the report.
With these federal and state guidelines in mind, employers need to be very clear about why, when, and how they plan to run social media screenings before they start.
what other regulations have an impact on social media screening?
In addition to these specific guidelines, US employers need to be acutely aware of the risk of anti-discrimination claims stemming from the information they uncover.
By their nature, social media screenings involve gathering information about a candidate’s personal life. This information could inadvertently reveal a candidate’s federally protected status, including: racial or ethnic origin, political or religious views, gender identity, disability, age (40 or older), or family status.
In the USA, this information reveals a candidate’s ‘protected class’ status, which employers cannot use to make hiring decisions.
Employers who conduct social media screenings run serious risks of inadvertently gathering and storing information like this or unconsciously allowing it to influence their hiring decisions, which can lead to serious legal trouble and expensive EEOC or court action. This is the "you can't unsee it" problem inherent in internal screening.
For this reason, it’s a good idea to get detailed legal advice and develop a transparent, compliant screening process before considering using information gathered via social media in your pre-employment check process.
stay aware of the different kinds of pre-employment checks
If your company runs reference checks, employment background checks or conducts social media screenings, it’s essential to know the difference and when you should use them. Stay updated and get a standard set of definitions with our pre-employment checks infographic, which covers these three processes and explains their fundamental differences. It’s in slide format and is perfect for printing out or rebranding and using in your internal presentations.
